Sue Bridge spent an active life learning and working. She earned a masters degree in Russian and Middle Eastern studies, learned about different worlds while hitchhiking to Morocco, worked for the Christian Science Monitor, and learned how to gather information and pass it on through print and electronic media. She also supported environmental causes, because she believed that future generations would face great challenges.
Ten years ago, she bought eight acres in the hills of Conway, where she built a small, off-the-grid house she named “Wildside,” and set herself to building a sustainable homestead. Soon word spread about what she was doing, and it did not take long before local people began asking to come and see. She had long been a communicator in one way or another, and realized she had now an opportunity to share what she was learning about the land, food, energy and a new way of living.
I first visited Bridge three years ago. I asked her if she had ever imagined that she would be giving tours of Wildside to adults and children. She shook her head and smiled. “I did not intend, but I do not resist,” she said.
On that first visit three years ago, she invited me into her solar-powered home. I opened the French doors from the living room and walked out onto the stone terrace to admire the view of planted terraces falling away down the hillside, the little greenhouse with its sod roof and several fruit trees, all embraced by the surrounding hills. She does not care for all of this by herself.
Jono Neiger of Regnerative Design was early on the scene, but he has been joined by others, from summer interns to teachers.
The word “gardens” does not begin to describe the way vegetables, fruits and nuts are grown on Bridge’s eight acres. A map she has created of the space divides it into areas by use. Bridge gave me my own tour, beginning with the area around the house with its solar panels, root cellar and terraced beds.
We walked down the hill to the greenhouse, which has a sod roof. Three years ago, it was filled with a winter’s worth of sweet potatoes, as well as small plantings of ginger and turmeric. Now a fig tree is bearing fruit.
A large vegetable garden lies next to the greenhouse, and I was able to walk around the fence in the new deer-deterrent path. The path was mowed and shrubs with fodder for deer were planted, while tall saplings visually reinforced the wire fence. Marauding deer can eat their fill of berries or fruit intended for them, but will be disoriented by the organization of space and barriers and will not try to get over the fence — deer do not jump over fences unless they understand where they will be landing.
Bridge walked me past the rice bed. It cannot be called a rice paddy, where rice is planted in a submerged bed; she uses a dry bed technique. Three years ago, that bed was quite small, but it has grown to encompass 450 square feet.
On our way back up the hill to the house, we passed through the forest garden, which includes blueberry bushes and a variety of fruit trees — from apples to paw paws. Bridge has also planted what she calls “fertility beds,” which are beds of comfrey, bush clover and switch grass. She cuts them down twice a year to use as mulch or compost.
Comfrey is known as a dynamic accumulator whose deep roots gather nutrients, like nitrogen and potassium from the soil, and then returns them to the soil as it decomposes. Bush clover is a legume, which can also fix nitrogen. These are sustainable ways that soil is improved without chemical fertilizers.
It was on this hill that I first met mountain mint, which attracts many kinds of bees, beneficial wasps, butterflies and moths that are all busy pollinators. I have added it to my own garden and love watching all those busy bees.
We walked and compared notes and experiences in the garden, some of which were more humorous than instructive, but I have always said that there are many mysteries, and a lot of fun, to be found in the garden.
Bridge told me about the teacher from Wellesley College who came to Wildside to teach school children about bees and other pollinators. In order to examine the pollinators more closely, the children caught them in plastic tubes (the ones that hold tennis balls) and laid the tubes in an ice-filled cooler. Within 10 minutes, the pollinators had fallen asleep and could be closely examined without fear of stinging. This is a technique that is sure to enchant grandchildren and others of your acquaintance — training for citizen science at a very young age.
We can all learn about how to use our land more sustainably from Bridge’s example at the Wildside Cottage and Gardens.
She will be holding workshops, however, some of us older folks will have an opportunity to get a virtual tour of Wildside, when Bridge speaks on planting for uncertain times at the Greenfield Community College Senior Symposium at the Downtown Campus on Wednesday, Nov. 9 from 2 to 4 p.m. She’ll be using many photographs to illustrate her projects at Wildside Cottage and Gardens. You can call 413-775-1605 for more information on the symposium.
Visit Bridge’s website at:
www.wildsidecottageandgardens.org
Pat Leuchtman has been writing and gardening in Heath at End of the Road Farm since 1980. She now lives in Greenfield. Readers can leave comments at her website: www.commonweeder.com